Posts Tagged ‘Mark Fields’

CEO Jim Hackett continues reshaping Ford's management team in his own image.

Ford’s new CEO Jim Hackett isn’t wasting time putting his personal stamp on the company.

Four top executives, including 37-year veteran Stephen Odell and former Wall Street investment banker John Casesa, are “retiring,” Ford announced. It’s the second major shake-up since Hackett was named CEO, replacing the ousted Mark Fields back in May. Tuesday’s personnel changes, announced two days before Ford reveals its third-quarter earnings, did bring some winners to the fore, including Kumar Galhotra, the president of the Lincoln brand now becomes Ford’s chief marketing officer.

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“The changes we are announcing today will further align resources and improve efficiencies throughout our global markets and operations,” said Hackett, a one-time CEO of furniture maker Steelcase, who was named CEO after Fields lost favor with investors, the Ford board and chairman and family heir Bill Ford.

In a final bid to satisfy Ford shareholders – and Chairman Bill Ford – CEO Mark Fields tried to shift blame for the company’s weakening performance stock price to his top lieutenant, according to a new report. But the effort to fire Ford’s President of the Americas Joe Hinrichs was blocked and Fields himself was given his walking papers on May 19th.

In turn, the popular Hinrichs wound up with a significant promotion as part of the shake-up that saw Fields replaced by former Steelcase chief executive Jim Hackett, notes a report in Automotive News. The 50-year-old Hinrichs will now serve in the newly created post of president of global operations.

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Last month’s shake-up at Ford came as the automaker scrambled to address declining U.S. sales and market share, a 38% plunge in first-quarter earnings, and a stock price that had dipped 40% since Fields was named CEO in July 2014. It hit a new 52-week low around the time Fields agreed to officially “retire” under pressure from the Ford board of directors and Bill Ford himself.

He may have lost one of the top spots in the auto industry, but Mark Fields won’t go away empty-handed.

Ousted Ford Motor Co. CEO Mark Fields will receive a parting gift of as much as $57.5 million, according to a report by the Bloomberg news service, including pay, stock awards, retirement benefits and bonuses. That figure is expected to dwarf what his successor, Jim Hackett will make, at least during his first year at the helm of the second-largest U.S. automaker.

Officially, Fields resigned last Friday, though it was made clear to him that Ford Chairman – and the grandson of founder Henry Ford – Bill Ford Jr. was intent on replacing the 56-year-old company veteran with the 62-year-old Hackett, a former chief executive at Steelcase, the Michigan-based office furniture manufacturer.

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Elevated to CEO in July 2014, Fields saw Ford’s profits hit an all-time record last year. But the maker’s sales and market share have been sliding, and earnings tumbled 38% during the first quarter of 2017, to $1.6 billion. What may have sealed his fate was the sharp decline in the carmaker’s stock price. It dropped 40% since Fields replaced his mentor Alan Mulally nearly three years ago.

Raj Nair will shift from running product development to serve as head of Ford's North American operations.

Just days after Ford Motor Co. announced a new chief executive officer, incoming CEO Jim Hackett has revealed a sweeping realignment of his top management team, shuffling over a dozen senior executives into new position, ousting others, and even rehiring one Ford veteran who had quit to take a job heading Uber’s autonomous vehicles program.

Separately, Ford said that Hackett, the former head of furniture maker Steelcase, is now eligible for at least $13.4 million in compensation this year. That includes $1.8 million in salary, $7 million in stock-based compensation and various bonuses.

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“The leadership changes we are announcing today across our global business are important as we foster even greater teamwork, accountability and nimble decision-making,” the 62-year-old Hackett said in a statement released Thursday.

Ford CEO Fields won't be the last Detroit exec trying to figure out how to address changes coming.

The unexpected ouster of Ford Motor Co. CEO Mark Fields comes as one of the biggest shake-ups Detroit’s Big Three have experienced since they emerged from the Great Recession – and it highlights the challenges they face trying to adapt to a global transformation in what automakers build and how they market those products.

The appointment of Jim Hackett to replace Fields is, however, just the latest in a series of big announcements from Detroit that last week saw Ford announce plans to cut 1,400 salaried workers in North America and Europe, while General Motors said it would stop selling cars in the huge Indian market and sell off operations in South Africa.

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“As the (Detroit) Big Three look out at the landscape, they see dramatic changes coming in the concept of mobility,” says Joe Phillippi, a veteran Wall Street auto analyst and now the lead at AutoTrends Consulting. “They are desperately trying to figure out the future business model and how they will fit in.”

Prior to joining Ford, Jim Hackett was Steelcase CEO and served as Interim U-Michigan Athletic Director.

Scrambling to turn around declining sales and earnings and to address broad shareholder concerns, Ford Motor Co. says it will replace CEO Mark Fields while reassigning a number of other senior managers.

The decision to oust the 56-year-old Fields, architect of a broad push into new mobility services, and replace him with former Steelcase CEO Jim Hackett comes just a week after Ford announced plans to eliminate 1,400 salaried jobs in North America and Asia, part of a broader $3 billion cost cutting program.

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Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. downplayed any sense of management turmoil in a statement confirming the news reports that had begun to appear late Sunday night, declaring, “We’re moving from a position of strength to transform Ford for the future.” (more…)

The new job cuts won't directly impact Ford's hourly workers - but they have been facing a series of temporary plant closures in recent months.

Ford Motor Co. has revealed plans to cut about 1,400 salaried jobs in North America and Asia as part of a cost-cutting plan, but the move is significantly smaller than had been suggested by some news reports earlier in the week.

The move comes as Ford struggles to boost sales and earnings after a sharp slump in recent months. The second-largest automaker has also been trying to boost its stock price, which has tumbled about 40% since Mark Fields became CEO nearly three years ago. But the initial response by investors is proving lackluster.

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“We remain focused on the three strategic priorities that will create value and drive profitable growth, which include fortifying the profit pillars in our core business, transforming traditionally underperforming areas of our core business and investing aggressively, but prudently, in emerging opportunities,” Ford said in a statement early Wednesday, updating comments the maker had released earlier in the week.

Under increasing pressure from stockholders as sales and profits decline, Ford Motor Co. is reportedly looking at cost cuts that could include the elimination of as much as 10% of its global workforce, sources tell TheDetroitBureau.com, confirming news reports that have been emerging overnight.

With a current workforce of around 200,000 employees worldwide, that means Ford could trim as many as 20,000 jobs, a large share of those apparently in the U.S. and Asia, though the final figure could be smaller. Other measures are designed to rein in spending and reverse the sharp, 35% drop in earnings Ford suffered during the first quarter of this year – triggering widespread criticism of the carmaker’s management by analysts and investors.

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In a statement, Ford declined to directly address the reported job cuts, but noted, “We remain focused on the three strategic priorities that will create value and drive profitable growth, which include fortifying the profit pillars in our core business, transforming traditionally underperforming areas of our core business and investing aggressively, but prudently, in emerging opportunities.”

Amidst signs of turmoil within the company, Ford’s top executives faced some sharp questions from shareholders during the first every “virtual annual” meeting.

“You both say that your main priority is to provide long-term shareholder value,” one shareholder asked. “Losing 40% of the value since Mark (Fields) took over as CEO doesn’t seem to be upholding that pledge.”

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In response, William Clay Ford Jr., Ford’s executive chairman and the great grandson of the company’s founder, said that the company’s stock price matters both to the Ford family and Ford’s top management. However, he added, Wall Street has historically undervalued automakers, even when they are earning substantial profits.

The surge in SUV demand drove up prices but Ford still saw overall sales dip in the U.S. and China.

A flurry of headwinds put the drag on Ford Motor Co. earnings during the first quarter of 2017, the numbers dropping 35% to $1.6 billion.

It didn’t help that Ford’s latest numbers are being compared to the best quarterly earnings in company history, the $2.2 billion profit the Detroit maker delivered between January and March 2016. On the upside, Ford’s $0.40 earnings per share and $36.5 billion in total revenues did manage to beat Wall Street $0.35 earnings estimate, according to a poll of analysts by FactSet.

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Among the challenges Ford faced this time around: declining sales, increased recall costs, as well as rising prices for steel and other raw materials. There was also some hefty spending to retool operations like the Michigan Assembly Plant to produce more of the trucks Ford needs in today’s SUV and pickup-centric market, something the maker’s CEO Mark Fields declared “an investment in Ford’s future.”